Hardlow Woods

Connected to Kuiper Swiftwater
ThiS dense woodland is packed with ground-hugging thorny bushes, and the terrain is virtually Impassable in places (cutting travel time by 25% to 5O'Yo). There are also !'mall rocky rifts of up to JO feet in depth in the Wl>st~m half of the woodJand, making travel hazardous. Humanoids sometimes forage here, and the place b home to a pack of worgs who stalk Howler's Moor at times. The worgs gel enough to eat from the deer of the woods most of the time and don't raid human settlements unless very hungry (during a !;Cvecc winter, etc.). If encountered in the woods, however. they are extremely fierce and always attack unJe,:>~ immediately confronted. with fire. Creeping vines and Spanish-moss style tree parasites with trailing roots are also common in the Hardlow woods; no forestry or scavenging goes on here. This is the most isolated. and neglected woodland in all of Haranshire. Gleaming Glade There are many locill rumors, with a hundred variations on the theme, concerning an evil priest and his followers (said to be assassins) who lived in the Hardlow Woods nearly two hundred years agolong before Milborne and Thurmaster were seHIed. and popuJated.. Only a handful of frontier fanners lived in the lands then. The priest is said to have belonged to a death cult (on Tori!, Myrkul; on Oerth, Nerull; on Mystara, Thanatos the OM should make these of the same faith as the priests currently operating out of the Carlstone Mine and Broken Spire Keep. The priest and his followers were wiped. out by Count Lothar Parlfray. a paladin, and his fellow advenhJrers. However, several of Parlfray's fellows were lost and the evil priest's dying curse blighted the woodland for nearly a hundred years-another reason why the locals avoid the place, being superstitious of any lingering effects of the curse. In particular, the fighter DaJraith was said to have been swallowed up in a pit of inky tar which drajned his life away, so that his suit of magical gi!ded chain maiJ was lost with him. The OM can embroider this tale so that the PCs get the clear idea that there is lost magical loot in the forest. Trying to find this lost largesse is like looking for a needle in a haystack. If the Pes just set off without any clues, the DM should throw some random encounters with humanoids and worgs at them (use the tables on the inside back cover). If, on the other hand, they ask around for information, Old Grizzler of Milbome knows an old song which says that Parlfray's followers fell in the Gleaming Clade. This place actually exists: a dead zone, with bare, skeletal, decaying trees covered in a phosphorescent moss that gleams at night. Old Gri.z.zler believes that the Gleaming Glade is to be found somewhere in the northwestern quadrant of lhe woods, though he doesn't know l'xactly where. This, at least, narrows down the Pes' sea rch area. In the Glade itself awaits the vengeful undead spirit of one of the evil priest's old servitors. if the Pes are still I st or 2nd level when they come here, they encounter a wight; otherwise, it is it wraith. Hence, don't give them Grizzler's clue until they have the ability to confront and kill the creature; the Pes should not come here unJess the party O",,"S at least one and preferably two magical weapons. If the wraith is overcome, the PCs can dig around in the befouled, malodorous. tarry-gelatinous "earth" and find some magic.l! treasure, though not the fabulous hoard they may have been hoping for It lakes 10 PChours of digging dnd searching to eXColvate each of the following items: dagger +1, long sword +1. rillg of prolection +1. sifieid +1, a fine platinum choker with emeralds worth 1.500 gp, and a sealed. silver scrollcase (value 150 gp) containing a scroll \\fith the spells sturk;Itg cl(lud, fly. and dispel magic. all scribed at 11th level. With each discovery there is a 50% chance of uncovering 5d20 gp scattered about the area also, in addHion to a fair amount of rusted and useless shields, bucklers. swords, and the like. Also inside the scroll tube is an old letter: give the players Player Handout 9 at this time. The handwriting can be identified as that of lothar Parlfray's scribe if the Pes can obtain a sample of his handwriting (some old ledgers and documt!Jlts at Parlfray's keep are the only likely source of such iI sample). The "keep" referred to in the letter couJd be wrongly assumed to be the one in the Halfrut H.ills currently occupied by the Parlfray family, and Count Sandior Parlfray will.lttempt to foster this misapprehension if asked direcU}' about it. Closer examination, however, should show the PCs that the note surely refers to another keep (for one thing. the hill keep has no spire), and they may begin inquiries to find it. 'This is a good clue to post for them just before: tile OM deems them to be: ready to approach Broken Spire Keep.